I've jumped the Blade and it's a really nice canopy. Very sweet openings, light front riser pressure, dives really steep, can be landed on either rear's -> toggles or just toggles alone. I felt it was a lot like the Xfire, great option for camera guys who still like to have a little fun on landings.

I'm curious why you are interested in how a Blade compares to a VX 39 or 46? I doubt that a Blade of that size whould be landable at all as it is a different class of canopy. The Nitro has been manufactured for several years, and has been available in US markets for several as well. Based on your other posts, I can tell you that you should not be flying one, and really should not even be thinking about sub 100 parachutes.

Quote: "man this is the first time ive seen this can i get any info on the nitro/blade canopy"

Its sort of one of those things where if you don't know what it is, you couldn't possibly be ready for it.

The Blade is not a X-braced canopy so it won't be quite as high performance as a VX. However, we had demo's from HiperUSA at our DZ a few weeks ago, and while I didn't demo either canopy (blade, nitro) it was pretty obvious that the blade is very capable of getting some serious distance without the hassle of a X-braced design.

After reading that article and looking at the pictures of the winglets on the Nitro and Blade I suspect they are a gimmick. How can they recover energy lost by wingtip vortices when they aren't even located at the wingtips?

Perhapse because a soft inflatible fabric wing is a totaly different beast to work with than a titanium/composit/aluminim wing.

and perhaps that the flight domain is totally different too... have a dozen of flights on Nitrons and teh stall speed is very very slow indeed... Also have some flight hours under advance paragliders... and these canopies rock

Perhapse because a soft inflatible fabric wing is a totaly different beast to work with than a titanium/composit/aluminim wing.

The article explained that air in the high pressure area at the bottom of an airfoil seeks the low pressure area at the top of the airfoil and spills around the end of the wing (thus reducing lift). Winglets are designed to block that path. If they aren't located at the wingtips I don't see how they can work.

I'm curious why you are interested in how a Blade compares to a VX 39 or 46? I doubt that a Blade of that size whould be landable at all as it is a different class of canopy. The Nitro has been manufactured for several years, and has been available in US markets for several as well. Based on your other posts, I can tell you that you should not be flying one, and really should not even be thinking about sub 100 parachutes. Its sort of one of those things where if you don't know what it is, you couldn't possibly be ready for it.

all right inestine if I was ready for it wy would I come to this forum???????? well not to sound BLUNT or anything.

I compared the Nitro (with burritos) similar to a stiletto with longer flare capabilities and a longer recovery arc. But I did not feel that it was as nice as a Crossfire2 when comparing the two. It was a nice price that JP gave me on the demo, I will give him that...

I've quite a few hours (days even ) under a Advance Sigma paraglider. And piisfish is right, these are very good canopies.

At first I was a bit sceptical about these silly wurst on my roof, so I had some lengthy discussions with my paragliding instructors. This is what they told me:

In well designed canopies the stall will always start at the end (I seem to remember something about predictable stall behaviour). What happens if you fly closer to stall speed is that your nice laminar airflow starts to delaminate and that part of the wing is stalling and you're loosing lift. The wingtip vortices add to this by disturbing the airflow. The winglets block these vortices, so the edges of your wing keep generating lift longer. In other words, the winglets help to delay the stalling of the wing.

Why not put the sausages at the end: because that is not the spot where they are most effective. Right at the edge of the canopy the airflow is not so clean anyway, so you put them in the spot where it is, which is not right on the edge.

Is it a gimmick or not? From what I heard, the theory makes sense to me. How much the real-life contribution of winglets is in a slow flying soft wing is another thing entirely.

I think you guys are starting to confuse the names and purpose of winglets and vortice generators

Dr whitcolm ( spelled something like that ) came up with the theory behind the "whitcolm winglets" that are those cute little and sometimes big vertical wings extending up from the tips of wings. These block ( only portions ) of the wing tip vortices and must be mounted on the wing tips.

Vortex generators create them to keep the airflow in the local area attached sometimes helping hold back the oncomming stall or keeping farther down the cord for a longer period. Vortex generators can be found many places like on the leading edges, or up to 25% back from the leading edges, of wings vertical or horizontal stabalizers. Check out the engine cowls on the DC-3. Look around they are everywhere.